Matthew Garrood, associate director of multi-channel for the organisation, said NHS Direct will launch apps for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry mobile devices within the next six weeks.

These apps are likely to focus on symptom checking for mental and sexual health conditions, he added, "where traditionally patients may feel uncomfortable going to see a physician". They will be usable when a device is offline.

"There's a commitment from NHS Direct to become a web first organisation, rather than a telephone service with a website," he told the Mobile and Wireless Healthcare conference in Birmingham on 16 February.

Web traffic from mobile devices has increased from 3,000 to 155,000 users a month in the last year, with a beta version of a web site designed for mobile use launched last summer, with Apple's iPhone by far the most-used device. Garrood added that the organisation expects that a quarter of its web traffic will come from mobile and portable devices in 2011-12.

As well as the mobile apps, NHS Direct will allow access to its services through an application programming interface, which could make them available through other organisations' websites, potentially including ambulance trusts and pharmacy chains.

It is also making greater use of social media, including Twitter and Habba Hotel, through which it has provided information on the HBP vaccine to teenagers. "I believe we're one of the first NHS trusts to livestream our board meetings," added Garrood: although these were open to the public previously, normally only one or two individuals would attend, but now hundreds watch them online.

He said that the organisation is preparing to sell services to GP commissioning consortia. "We'll be providing the services our commissioners want us to provide," he said. "If they want GP bookings, we'll do GP bookings."

NHS Direct is also looking at providing pharmacy dispensing services, with Garrood saying that it "dipped its toe in the water" when running the National Pandemic Flu Service, which issued prescriptions for Tamiflu. It is also looking at video calls between patients and its contact centre, and providing its 19,500 registered members with downloadable records of their interactions with the service, which they could show to other healthcare providers.

Responding to a criticism that online services could be used by 'health tourists' rather than taxpayers, he said that only 7% of NHS Direct's web traffic originates outside the UK, and that steps are taken to prevent foreign users from accessing anything more than self-care advice, such as the requirement of a valid postcode.